A drive support apparatus includes a part that obtains a traffic signal information related to a light state of traffic signal in time series, and a first output part that outputs to a driver a remaining time before a light state of the traffic signal is changed to a driver (see WO2009/157108 pamphlet which is referred to as “Patent Document 1” hereinafter).
There are infrastructures that provide information to vehicles such as an infrastructure that utilizes optical communication and an infrastructure that utilizes electric wave communication. If the traffic signal information can be obtained from such infrastructures, even when one infrastructure cannot be used at a certain intersection, the remaining time of the red traffic signal can be output to the driver of the host vehicle using another infrastructure. However, when the traffic signal information can be obtained from two or more infrastructures at a certain intersection, output demands between output process parts that are operated based on the respective items of the traffic signal information are in competition against one another. Such competition demands may cause the driver to feel strange if the respective demands are responded normally.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a traffic signal state detection apparatus that can perform arbitration between output process parts that are operated based on respective items of traffic signal information from different infrastructures.